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Photo: K. Ganesan

Leisure Time to get exposed to new experience

Come on. Get up. Its time for your class, the mother screams in full throttle disturbing the child’s peaceful morning slumber.

If you think this is a part of the daily morning chore during the busy academic year, you are mistaken. In most homes, even holiday mornings begin like this. For, in majority of the homes these days, children are sent to attend summer camps, almost forced by their parents, who want their wards to be “engaged fruitfully elsewhere.”

Over the years, vacation has lost its meaning and summer camp its relevance. Visits to ancestral house in native town are long forgotten in the nucleus family system with both the parents working. For them, keeping their children occupied is of utmost important than the utility of the events scheduled in the camps.

Dr. Dheep, Director, Total Orientation Programme Kindling Ideal Development in Students (TOPKIDS) and a child psychiatrist, admits: “The very concept of camping during summer vacation is conveniently forgotten. In the name of summer camps, children go to same school, meet same set of friends and instructors attempting to teach a different activity but not new really. Change from the routine is not happening here, which worries people interested in child welfare.”

With captive transport facilities and required manpower, most of the educational institutions are best equipped to conduct these camps. But if you ask whether the camp activities are planned in consultation with qualified counsellors in child psychology, the answer is no in almost every case.

“Children never get a break at all. Some of the camp activities, which are intended to enhance latent talent in children, turn out to be arduous on the contrary. Problems arise out of over expectant and over protective parents who smother the individuality of their wards and play havoc with them,” vents out Dr. Dheep.

Remarks N. Balakrishnan, a Central Government employee, “As parents we want our children to be safe and under a protective care during the vacations. In houses, where both father and mother are working, life becomes difficult for the child, who wishes to move out. In the absence of a monitoring mechanism, there is every chance for the child to get entangled in unnecessary problems. Hence, we send our children to camps. At least, we have the satisfaction of children being taken care of when we are away.”

Echoes Valli Annamalai, secretary, Indian Council for Child Welfare: “The predicament of working parents is well understood. Here is where a joint family system can work wonders. When the parents are away, the elders in the family take care of the children, leaving no chance for the kids to stray. To be frank, children like summer camps. For, it provides them an opportunity to make relationships and gain life skills, if the camps are properly planned and organised. But conducting camps in the school atmosphere will not serve the purpose. The venue must change.”

Endorses Dr. Dheep: “Take the children elsewhere. Look for innovations. Organise camps in different areas. Get them closer to nature. Make them understand what life is all about in real sense. Organise trekking camps. Make them walk barefoot. Make them sensitive to touch. Most of the camps organised in educational institutions miss this vital element. Better understanding of the targeted age group while designing an activity will only benefit children.”

Agrees Aruna Visweswar, Principal, S.D.H. Jain Vidyalaya: “Children need exposure. Vacation is the right time for children to get exposed to different experiences. For, they are free from academic pressures and have ample time. It is the time when they can identify their interest and continue nurturing it even after the start of the academic year. But the onus is on the parents. For, they have the responsibility to encourage family activity. Besides, they should let their children act independently.”

Summer camps have lost their sting. For, the activities are not planned with the beneficiaries in mind. Profitability, in other terms, saleability of the activity is what bothers the organisers. The number of entries decides whether the activity should be in place or not. If the response to a particular activity is more, then there is every chance of that activity to become expensive.

Parents also are to be equally blamed. For, most of them do not want their routine to be disturbed and also do not have the patience to spare and spend time with their children.

Ask any parent for whose benefit are the camps conducted and the reply invariably will be “for children”. But dig a bit deep and perhaps the underlying truth will emerge. Children are sent to summer camps for the convenience of parents.

What should be most importantly understood is that children should be in right frame of mind to enjoy what they are put in to. It should not be a forced upon activity but one that brings a smile on the faces of the little ones.

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